AFTER DEADLINE
The headline quandary: space vs. interpretation

By Anne Harpham

Writing headlines is not easy. The few words that top stories, columns, letters, photos and graphics in each day's paper must accomplish a lot in a short amount of space. They have to draw the reader into the story, summarize what the story is about or sometimes, in the case of feature stories, portray an image. Nearly all are written under the pressure of deadline.

Headlines are written by copy editors, not the reporter whose name is on the story. Yet the reporter is usually the one who takes the heat for a headline that may not be on target.

Such was the case last week when Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief Kevin Dayton heard from several readers who believed, based on the headline, that he was biased in favor of the Democrats with his analysis of the legislative session last Sunday. The headline over his story read: "Session favored the people."

Below the headline was this summary introduction, also written by a copy editor: "After years of catering to business interests, Democrats this year took a consumer-oriented stance. That shift may give the party what it needs to hold its majority this fall."

"The headline implies that the story says the Legislature did a great job because it did the right thing for all of the people," Dayton said. "What the story actually says is that the Legislature took the actions it did as part of a political pitch. Those are very different things and the headline didn't pick up on that distinction."

News Editor Brad Lendon, who supervises the copy desk, disagrees. He said he believes the headline accurately reflects the point in the story that special interests lost out in favor of the public good. He believes readers could only find fault with the headline if they approach it with a pre-conceived bias that Democrats favor the people and Republicans favor business.

Ideally, readers would absorb both headlines and story content and reach their own conclusions about a story's major points. But as the responses to Dayton showed, that doesn't always happen.

It is human nature to attach labels to causes, people and organizations. But too often that context carries negative or prejudicial meanings. For that reason, it is our policy to avoid such labels.

We slipped in a story last Monday on the Republican Party's state convention, as well as in a column. We have long had a policy that the labels "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are not used to describe positions on abortion. We ask writers to use phrases such as "abortion-rights advocate" and "anti-abortion activist."

We also ask our reporters and editors to avoid political labels such as "conservative," "left-wing" and "moderate." It is far better to spend a few words and precisely describe a politician's views on specific issues than to attach a label that likely does not apply to the entire spectrum of a person's beliefs and political stances.

Spider-Man mania is upon us, so a few readers were unhappy when their Sunday papers were missing USA Weekend, which included a Spider-Man poster. Because of a freight company error, we didn't receive enough copies of the magazine and we didn't find out until late Saturday. If your paper did not have USA Weekend and you still want a copy, a limited number will be available at our information desk, which is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. The phone number is 525-7620.

Senior editor Anne Harpham is the reader representative. Reach her at aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8033.